BOOM. It’s the new site for FPS fanatics!

Welcome to FPS Gamer. Round here, we mostly shoot stuff.

Not in a because-I-had-to, point-of-last-resort sort of way, but in a cackling, dropped-a-cheesy-punchline-afterwards sort of way.

We’re slightly mental like that. So are lots of you people, if sales of games like Call of Duty 4 are any indication. The FPS is big business nowadays. Why, then, the absence of a fully-fledged FPS-focussed editorial site? Did Rupert Murdoch skip that part of the marketing report? Is Future Publishing too peaceable to step up to the plate? We don’t know. We don’t care. We’ve come, we’ve seen and – given a handy ammo cache or two – we’re going to conquer.

But just who are “we”? FPS Gamer’s launch staff include the cream of Kikizo talent – Valve fanatic Adam Doree (if you’re unfamiliar with Adam, just go to any Sega event and follow the sound of swearing), network editor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell (possibly the poshest man in the business, and the chap behind such coverage as this Killzone 2 blowout), the legendary Kristan Reed of Eurogamer fame and eloquent review-o-matic Rupert Higham. A big hand too for our bloodthirsty army of freelancers.

Besides incisive reviews, previews and interviews, we’ll be running the following unique FPS-flavoured features:

Quickfire Q&A – Our schizophrenic antidote to over-worded, boringly constructed articles, giving you all the key info plus a joke or three in snappy question-answer format. Here’s one for Modern Warfare 2.

Weapon Drop – Short, sharp homilies to new, old and upcoming FPS weapons. If it blows shit away plenty good (and sometimes even if it doesn’t), you’ll find a corresponding entry here. Anybody fond of sticky grenades?

One-on-One – Wavering over a purchase? These itemised “versus” articles pit near-contemporary shooters against one another in a life-or-death struggle for your pocket money.

Match Report – A breathless write-up of a memorable multiplayer session. Games featured range from the yet-to-be-released (e.g. Modern Warfare 2) through the massively popular (e.g. Halo 3) to the criminally neglected (e.g. Quake Wars).

Here’s a summary of what we’ve published so far. Kristan’s titanic History of First-Person Shooters takes point, ably supported by Manny Brown’s Worst FPS level and Best of Halo 3 Forge mode features. Reviews-wise, Rupert has the lowdown on Metroid Prime Trilogy and Halo 3: ODST, Richard Walker came away shell-shocked but smiling from Operation Flashpoint, and Edwin’s made short work of Wolfenstein and Dead Space: Extraction.

We don’t want to presume, but we think you’re going to like it here. All comments and criticisms are welcome. To get you started, how about some trigger-happy quotes?

“Too close for missiles, I’m switching to guns.” (Maverick, Top Gun)

“Guns are the crutches of the impotent.” (Arthur C.Clarke)

“When you absolutely, positively have to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitute.” (Jules Winnfield on the AK47, Pulp Fiction)

“If you are going to stick to your guns, make sure they are loaded with fact and not fiction.” (Joseph Cubby)